American products in New Zealand!!!!

OMG..... Look what we found in New Zealand. Let me start off by saying that I wouldn't normally buy BBQ sauce, chocolate fudge mix and pumpkin pie filling because I make my own from scratch. This is one of the characteristics of being Leslie in New Zealand; however, if I were in America, I would still be buying this stuff.

About the pumpkin pie filling (for $8.00 NZ), I just can't seem to master my pumpkin pie here because our pumpkins just aren't the same. I am very excited to have this and can't wait to make a real pumpkin pie with real graham cracker pie crust from the supply I brought from the US last November.

The El Pato is the biggest can I have ever seen in my life (I could bathe in it). It's 27 ounces/765 grams and cost $5.00 which is actually not too bad of a price. This is a product I can also find at a Mexican Restaurant here in NZ except she sells small cans at $4.00 each. Now that is a rip if I ever saw one.

This store also had Captain Crunch (reeces flavour), Cheetos, Fritos, Oreo COOKIES, Graham crackers, Skor bars, Dr Pepper soda, Lipton teas, Red Vines, and more. The best thing of all is that they had Tide Laundry Detergent, which I didn't buy because I didn't want to spend $15.00 for a small bottle. But oh, how I would love to use the good stuff again.

Stay tuned for my next trip to this store. I'm leaving Holming at home and taking my credit card with me. Teeheehee

Mountain biking at Woodhill Forest

Upon waking up this morning, I had the bright idea of going mountain biking, even though the weather forecast was for showers. I am a road biker, and enjoy being on the road, but had never tried riding a bike out on a trail. I guess it’s a big thing over here, being surrounded by forest and all. The unusual thing about the area we live in is that bikes aren’t allowed on regular walking trails. We have 154 trails in the Waitakere Ranges and we had to drive 45 minutes away to a place called Woodhill Forest. Holming goes to this place with his friend about once a month so I wanted to check it out for myself. It was a beautiful drive and a fun park to ride through.

We decided to do the 10km/6mi track for beginners. Being a beginner track it did not have very steep climbs but did have small jumps, ramps and cliffs to jump over. I was too chicken for the first half of the ride but LOOK WHAT I CAN DO.....



I must say, I don’t know if I will be able to sit tomorrow as I am already a bit sore in the "seat area". It was all worth it though, I had a blast and can’t wait to do it again. Even though I was walking my bike at the end. A beginner can only ride up so many hills.

Who’s laughing now?

All in a day’s work

I should say, all in a morning’s work but that doesn’t sound right. I don’t know where I get it from or when it started but I really enjoy being a morning person. I love to wake up before the birds start to sing (and the birds start really early over here!) and the sunrise so that I can enjoy hearing the birds sing and viewing the sunrise. Weird- I know. One of the things that motivates me to get up early (especially on my weekends) to start my day, is the amount of things I can accomplish in the morning hours.

Here’s my Saturday morning- Started the morning off with a swim at 6am then home for a quick shower and bite to eat. Once it reached a civilised hour (8am) I headed outside to the back yard to chop firewood. Let me back up and note that we had a big tree cut down a few months ago and opted out of having the guy chop it up for us for an extra $200. Instead we’ve been doing it ourselves at a very slow pace. Since Winter is quickly approaching, I decide that today was the day that we would finish the job. I went out to get a head start and while innocently minding my own business, I was stung by a bee. Not just stung but violated. The damn thing flew into my shirt and stung me on my shoulder. What the hell???? That was so uncalled for. After that, Holming came out to protect me from other violations and to help me finish off the job. It turns out that there is a beehive that came down with the tree so we didn’t get to finish the job today because we need to find a way to clear the bees away....quickly!

Still outside, we harvested the rest of my garden treasures and turned over the garden patch so that it can rejuvenate over the Winter.

I forgot to mention that before heading outside to chop firewood, I prepared dough for a loaf of bread so it could rise while I was outside. Once in from the garden, I popped the bread in the oven and, voila!, we have a beautiful fresh loaf of bread for lunch.

All this was done by midday. Now that I’ve posted a long overdue blog, it’s still early, what other trouble can I get myself into today?